Ancestor Details

Name of Ancestor: Archibald James Middleton

Ancestor's date of birth: 27/10/1871

Ancestor's date of death: 04/10/1930

Cause of Death: Pneumonia

Service Number: 309

Colony or State of enlistment: NSW, Place of Enlistment: Detail not provided

Unit: New South Wales Citizens' Bushmen, C Squadron

Rank attained in Boer War: TPR, Date Effective: On enlistment

Highest Rank attained (if served after war): No evidence of post Boer War Service

Murray Page: 82

Contingent: Third New South Wales

Ship: Atlantian or Maplemore, Date of Sailing: 27/02/1900

Other Boer War Service: Canadian Scouts, Corporal, Number 365

Memorial details: Detail not provided

Awards/Decorations: Queen and King's South Africa Medals with clasps.

Personal Characteristics: Detail not provided

Reasons to go and fight: Possibly the money and to use his newly acquired combat skills, when he joined the Canadian Scouts.

Details of service in war: April 1900 - April 1901 in Rhodesia, west Transvaal including defence of Elands River Post (4-16 August 1900), and in northern Transvaal, great De Wet hunt (February - March 1901) and advance on Petersburg with the NSW Citizen's bushmen. He then joined the Canadian scouts. By this time this unit had evolved into an irregular mounted corps of four squadrons, a machine gun battery, a troop of Black South African scouts, and a transport column, in all about 475 men paid the princely sum of two shillings a day above the standard rate. By this stage, however, most of the men in its ranks were not Canadians, but included men from throughout the British Empire. Known for disdaining standard military discipline, the Canadian Scouts gained a reputation as a group of hard-riding, implacable, and death-defying soldiers. They saw plenty of action and suffered a large number of casualties.

Service and life after the Boer War: Married in Durban or Pretoria in 1904 to Australian Marion Bunyan. They had a son in Durban or Pretoria in 1906. He became a butcher's carter and lived in Lidcombe NSW

Descendant Details

Name of Descendant: Russell Middleton, Yarralumla ACT
Relationship to Ancestor: Grandson

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